


Gone

by Fallen_Ark_Angel



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-27
Updated: 2020-10-27
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:28:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27220498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fallen_Ark_Angel/pseuds/Fallen_Ark_Angel
Summary: Sometimes Laxus has to leave. But it's okay. He'll always come back.
Relationships: Laxus Dreyar/Mirajane Strauss
Comments: 1
Kudos: 24





	Gone

He was gone a lot.

Not in a, "Oh, he clearly doesn't want to be here," kind of way, but more in a, "He's an S-Class wizard and people constantly are needing and relying on him," kind of way. Laxus was a well-known mage which meant a high price point to go along with such notoriety, and that made it even harder to walk away from things. Help save a village in the way only you could? Or stay home? Say no to enough jewels to completely pay off that new motorcycle? How can you deny people? Or the jewels?

It was just how it had to be.

It was the way it always was, when your parent was a mage.

Laxus could remember being a young boy, sitting around, waiting for his mother and father to come home. Sitting all day in the guildhall, annoying the fuck out of everyone around, worried about when his parents would return. And though at times he felt a slight resentment over such things, there was always nothing more than he wanted than to be the person someone was waiting around for.

He got a taste of it, in the first few years of his marriage.

Mirajane didn't travel often, instead staying around the bustling hall, where she spent her time assisting the ailing Makarov in what seemed to be his final years. She seemed happiest there, among all their friends, and though at times both the slayer and the demon discussed what it would be like, if she took some time off, and traveled around with him, perhaps even as the S-Class wizard she once was, assisting on jobs, nothing ever really came of it.

And then, in their fourth year of marriage, the idea was shelved indefinitely as they both decided it was finally time to start trying for a baby.

It was a very big step and had been discussed to death, but it was definitely one in the right direction. For sure. Laxus wasn't so sure that he was completely ready to be a father, but he knew for certain his demon would be the best mother to ever exist and that she'd pick up where he stumbled.

He figured he'd stumble a lot.

Freed told him once that he was a reserved person these days and Laxus felt like that was a rather accurate description. Something changed in him, all those years ago, during his excommunication. Though that was now a distant memory, a lot of the self-discovery that came to him in those months stuck with him all these years later. He used to be a rather brash and reactive person, but that had faded as his twenties did as well and now, a man in his thirties with a wife and child, he found it much better to be an outside observe than an active participant in much of went on.

He was quiet now. In a lot of situations where he'd be the first to pop off. It didn't mean that the same energy, the same power, the same drive wasn't still residing in his core, but it did mean he knew when to best unveil it.

When he and Mirajane first started getting serious, he could remember one time in particular where they were hanging around in the apartment he had at the time, mostly just spending time together following a rather long job he'd been out on, when she suddenly just looked at him. Really looked at him. They were seated on his couch, him glancing over a section in the paper while she was watching a movie on his lacrima, but suddenly he felt her eyes and, when he turned to meet them, the woman only smiled.

Upon his questioning though, the demon merely smiled at him, reached a hand up, and took his chin between her thumb and forefinger. Then, in complete sincerity, with her piercing blue eyes captivating his dark own, she told him simply that she could see it in him, all of it, swirling there beneath the surface, and she was really glad he chose to share it with her.

He couldn't remember, so many years having gone by, what it was that prompted this or what idle thing they were discussing while each doing their own activity, but he could remember the way it made him feel. Loved. Not the kind that he felt, all those years ago from his mother or currently from his grandfather. Or the veneration and respect he garnered from the Thunder Legion.

No.

It was different, when it came from someone you were in a relationship. When you were falling for someone. When you'd fallen, already, and were down, but blinking up at them, it felt like, and they were staring right back down at you, with that same dopey look in their eyes.

But when she released his chin, Laxus only turned his head back to his paper, saying nothing as Mirajane went back to her movie, and he didn't have a lot of words. These days. Now that his cutting remarks and jarring jabs were taking from him. He felt at a loss, a lot of times, for what he was supposed to do or say, as if these emotions he had in the current age, separate from the aggressive, hate-filled ones of the past, just weren't as simple to navigate.

He felt that a lot, now, honestly.

All the feelings that went along with this stage of life got tangled up rather frequently. Especially when it came to his daughter.

That first time he held her, he knew he felt all of the things you were supposed to feel. That joy and relief. Maybe not the connection, just yet, that Mirajane seemed to have right off the bat, that made her get up much easier in the dead of night and not grow as annoyed so easily when the baby was a bit too fussy.

It came with time though.

The first time he really felt it was a month or so, after she was born, when he was trying to let the demon have a complete nights rest for the first time, since, oh, a month or so, and he was up rocking the whiny baby back to sleep. She wasn't hungry or wet. Didn't feel too cold or warm. Nope. Wasn't sick. Just wasn't happy. Wasn't content.

Laxus felt that.

As he sat there though, in the rocking chair, he just kept staring down at her, watching as the baby slowly settled in his arms, comforted fully by him, wanting him.

She knew him and wanted him and it would suck, he knew, he always knew, the first time he had to go away for a very long time.

He took some small jobs, after the baby was born, just so they'd always have a steady stream of income, but eventually a big, lengthy job came up that he couldn't rightly refuse. The travel to get there alone, though, would be a week and he was just freaked a little. Maybe.

Even while being married to Mirajane, he found that he liked long jobs. Time away. People needed space. Everyone wanted to be missed. While his wife might not always seem it, he knew she was much like him deep down; they functioned best when they had a few moments to themselves. To be alone. Think things over.

Plus, there was nothing quite like it. Coming home to the demon. She'd cook him a big meal when he'd been away a long time, shower him with adoration upon his return, and, of course, well, nothing quite beat the first night back in town.

But Mirajane, obviously, was a fully grown person who could understand what it meant, when something went away. That it would return. And, of course, his biggest fear, what it was when it returned.

He was worried his baby would forget about him.

The job was projected to take a month and, given she'd only been alive for about ten of those by that point, he couldn't imagine her memory was that great.

Mira offered to transform into him, so he'd still be around, but Laxus feared that would warp the child even further and besides; this was going to be their life. He was going to go away sometimes. For long stretches of time.

She had to learn to get used to it.

Still, as he packed his bag, he let her lay up on the bed, where she could watch the process while chewing on some of her toys (yeah, she was mostly concerned about the toys). When he came to nuzzle his head against her similar blonde locks, the baby mewled at him and he could hear Mirajane giggling at the sight, but he didn't care.

He was going to miss his baby.

But fuck, how was it that he slept better camping out than in the house with a not quite one year old? Sheesh, he'd take chirping crickets over those still sporadic full night sleeps. Those first few ones, at least. Eventually he found he missed not only the demon's warmth, like he always did, but how he'd get up each night, for a glass of water, and go to peek in on his daughter. Waking up to Mirajane laying her on the bed, where she could play with her toys as her mother got ready for work and Laxus laid there, wishing for more sleep, but giving in and waving her little soft toys in her face.

It wasn't just the baby that was going to have to get used to how things were going to be.

Still, he did have a job to do and Laxus was a good as shit mage. He always had been. He prided himself on it.

But he didn't stay around to celebrate or hit up any bars on the way home. No. Just used his Lightning Body Magic the length it would take him and even risked train travel, just to get home as quickly as possible.

He knew the demon's schedule well-enough that he was certain she would be home, rather than working (in which case he'd have to track down just who was babysitting that day), so he skipped out on the hall all together and headed straight home.

The demon was very busy with laundry when he walked into the living room, her seated on the couch, folding it, while her younger sister, Lisanna, seemed to be over, visiting with the baby. She was sitting on the floor with her, helping the steady her niece as she practiced standing.

She was getting quite good at it.

Before Laxus left, she'd finally seemed to master doing so without falling immediately down on her butt and it had felt like a very big accomplishment. Now though, as he opened the door, he heard Mirajane coaxing her, from over where she sat on the coach nearby, only halfheartedly, not quite having faith in the little girl's first steps. Which would make sense, given they'd been trying for a few days now and though she could fake enthusiasm like the best of 'em, well...maybe Mirajane kind of missed her dragon too.

But he was there then, in what felt rather sudden, and Mirajane was quickly jumping up to greet him and that was great, he accepted her hug and kisses with ease, but just as quickly, Laxus' eyes were on his daughter.

Lisanna had been in the middle of standing her up, in hopes of once more ushering her into her first steps, but then Laxus walked in and it seemed to confuse the baby for a moment, who just stood there now, way more steady on her feet, wow, he was super impressed, but just standing there, watching her mother embrace the man. As Mirajane laughed though, at her own reaction, and took a step back, Laxus only took one towards his daughter and, surprisingly to him, when he held out his hands, she took her own towards him.

She was going to fall on her face though, with the second step, but he'd never let that happen, tough love was for the birds, and he rushed then to grab her, lifting her up, tossing her, really, and he found himself laughing when she giggled. When she was safe in his arms then, he nuzzled his golden hair against her much softer and, though he knew it was crazy, he swore she nuzzled back.

The moment wasn't shattered though, when Laxus felt the stares and bemused grins of both his wife and her sister as, instead of collecting himself, he only said, "What? A man can't love his baby now?" before pressing a kiss to the child's cheek.

And he'd be gone a lot. Sometimes way longer than he had been that time.

But he'd always come back. And he was sure, as he grinned openly down at his daughter in those moments, that he'd always have someone waiting on him.


End file.
